GMP is off to a great start in 2018

January 30th, 2018

Happy January everyone,

I’m pleased to report that GMP is off to a great start in 2018! Last week was a pretty big week: Not only did we spread the word during Grammy Week in NYC by sponsoring the Music Business Association’s global NY:LON Connect conference kick-off lunch with ChooseATL, the following day Billboard ran an amazing piece on the Georgia Music Investment Act. Then two days ago, Billboard again mentioned our tax incentive in a piece that calls for the Grammys to move to Atlanta(!). Talk about timing!

NY:LON Connect was a two-day program headlined by a series of keynotes and panels featuring senior global business development executives from major and independent labels, music services, publishers, PROs, and other key players in the industry. We thank our event co-sponsors and partners, ChooseATL, for joining us at the event on the 23rd and for helping make our sponsorship possible. The sold-out room was packed with over 200 executives. Our message about the Georgia Music Investment Act was received with great interest, and we will be following up with interested parties about the tax incentive.

I am posting the brief speech I gave during the lunch below. It was complimented nicely by ChooseATL , who highlighted why Atlanta is a great place to live, work and play in – and how they can be a resource in helping stakeholders navigate the opportunity to be part of our growing music industry. They also presented THEA, the first-ever localized premium video network and community for creative minds.

The next day, Georgia’s Music Investment Act was featured in Billboard Magazine, thanks to an editorial submitted by our President Emeritus Tammy Hurt and our counselor Stephen Weizenecker (partner at Barnes & Thornburg, LLP). Thank you Tammy and Stephen for putting this together!

I will post again soon with details about GMP’s 2018 strategy. Now here is my NY:LON Connect speech:

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Welcome everyone – and thank you Music Business Association and Music Ally for having us.

My name is Shachar Oren. Many of you know me as the CEO of Neurotic Media, but today I’m here to talk to you about my pro bono work as president of Georgia Music Partners. We are a non-profit organization focused on growing the music industry in Georgia. And we are here to help you save a lot of money…

How many of you know that Georgia is now the No. 1 movie filming location in the world? It is, according to the publication Film L.A…. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced film and television productions generated $9.5 billion in economic impact in 2017…. In the past year, 320 film and television productions shot in the state of Georgia, including several Marvel movies, Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

This unprecedented growth started with a Film Tax Incentive, which Georgia passed ten years ago, and which Hollywood has clearly embraced and is trying to leverage to its fullest… It is our goal is to see the same momentum now in music.

Georgia Music Partners had a legislative win last year with the passing of the Georgia Music Investment Act. What the new tax law provides is 15 to 20 percent savings on qualified spending, specifically in tour pre-production and in music recording. Meaning, for every $100,000 you spend, you can get back $15,000 to $20,000. The more you spend in Georgia, the more you save. Think about what that does to your revenue margins.

Now, to be sure, Georgia’s music industry is well established in many respects, particularly on the creative side. Some call Atlanta an urban music mecca – the origin and home to the likes of Killer Mike, Migos, Future, 2 Chainz, Rich Homie Quan, Big Boi, CeeLo Green and so forth. Of course, Georgia’s musical output extends across many genres, from James Brown to REM, from Collective Soul to contemporaries such as Deerhunter, Jason Aldean, Zac Brown Band, Like Bryan, Kip Moore, Billy Currington, HRX, Bro Safari, heRobust, Alan Jackson, and the list goes on. Yet the business side of the industry has lacked a significant presence in Georgia in recent years. We want you back! And we hope this tax incentive will compel you to bring your music production and rehearsal work to Georgia.

On your chair you’ll find our flyer, which provides more specifics about it. Please share this with your CFO and your production executives, the folks that control production planning budgets, and any partners you have that invest in these areas. Have them call us. We would like to hear from them and explain in detail how they can save a significant amount of money in Georgia.

We would appreciate you being our advocate in your company, and of course, for you to be the conduit to your company achieving significant savings in the areas qualified under this law.

(Shachar Oren is President of GMP and Founder and CEO of Neurotic Media)